This weekend, I took my girlfriend up to Antilon Lake (I always go to the smaller upper section). Like usual, the scenery of this lake is absolutely breathtaking. Even more incredible is the large variety of wildlife that lives out there. I only had two problems with the lake. Primarily, most of the campsites were covered in litter. As we arrived late Friday night we were greeted by high decibels of a car stereo and drunk white trash teens cussin' each other out while enjoying their 10-15 foot high (flames) giant bonfire in this very arid and flammable ponderosa pine forest.

Secondly, I just did not see (nor catch) the number of brown trout that I usually do in this lake. What I did see were hundreds of pumpkinseed sunfish. They were falling between 4-7," which I feel is admirable for pumpkinseed. Currently, they are protecting their redds, and thus, makes easy fishing for the males. I trolled a "Carey Special" to take one pumpkinseed on a fly. But without a doubt, spinners in brown trout colors really produce on this lake.

This weekend, I explored a new under-fished portion of the lake. This is a pond like, extension adjacent to the main body of the upper lake (right across from the boat launch). In this pond, you will find some very naive fish that are aggressive feeders. This pond (if we want to call it that) hosts large schools of pumpkinseed which have small populations of large (up to 9") crappie within their ranks. But the most interesting resident of this pond are the wise brown trout hold-overs. I cast my spinner over a submerged log to get a savage strike from one of these bad boys. Unfortunately, I thought I had another pumpkinseed (they strike hard too!) and I gave the brown some slack, which he gratefully spit the hook and hit the open road! However, he spit the hook at the surface during an aerial, which gave me a chance to size him up: Appx.14-15" and very little yellowing, making for a pretty pale brown. (From my experience, this is the case on this lake.) The browns are definitely back in the pond, and when not hiding behind submerged structure waiting to ambush something, can be found in REALLY shallow water. I would most likely guess that they were taking damsel nymphs, or ants (which can both be found in abundance, along with some very small midges.)

Anyway, if you go back in the pond, be sure that you have a float tube that can take some abuse because you will have to kick/slide it over some cattails and woody structure that separate the two bodies of water. Again, I only witnessed a few occasions of fining/surface activity, so lean on those damsels, and enjoy yourself. You'll see lots of waterfowl, small rock lizards, and yellow-eared slider turtles just to name a few. Enjoy and if you come up with a productive fly pattern, let me know. (That Carey was only marginally successful..)

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